Newsjack - Series 8 Page 11

Quote: Shandonbelle @ February 12 2013, 6:38 PM GMT

Do oneliners necessarily have to be just one line? I know mine run into more and looking at past rejects etc on here that's not unusual but the term 'oneliners' always throws me a bit.

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I think they just use the term 'oneliner' to mean any joke that isn't a sketch. Listening to the previous shows there have certainly been jokes in between sketches that would be longer than one line on a document.

I hope so, anyway. One of my 'oneliners' is 5 sentences long.

Quote: Mr M @ February 12 2013, 7:26 PM GMT

I think they just use the term 'oneliner' to mean any joke that isn't a sketch. Listening to the previous shows there have certainly been jokes in between sketches that would be longer than one line on a document.

I hope so, anyway. One of my 'oneliners' is 5 sentences long.

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Hmm. That does sound more like a quickie sketch than a one-liner. It's not unusual for Corrections or And Finally.. to run a little longer than a Jackapp but if you need to take more than a couple of breaths to deliver it, it might not be a "one-liner"! The examples in Dan's first post and pretty representative of what they're looking for.

Three sketches from me -

New cat playing piece in Monopoly
The retirement of the world's most prolific streaker
The Batista salary as a parody of Zero Dark Thirty

Some corrections, some jackapps and some intros.

I do blooming love the six weeks of Newsjack, it really focuses you on getting something done.

Is anyone going tomorrow night?

I think one-liner is a bit of a misnomer if you think of it as literally "one line". I take it to mean one person speaking for a short gag. Most of my one-liners are two sentences.

If anyone wants 1 ticket for Wednesday's recording, can you please email me direct at vivienne.riddoch@ntlworld.com and I'll email it over to you.

With the one liners, is it better to put it in the format you think it'd best fit or should you just send the joke and they'll decide whether they want to use it as a jackapps/correction etc etc?

I already sent off this weeks just as "jokes" but wondered about future submissions.

You need to write it in the correct format, as you see it broadcast. If they need to do much work to it, it'll probably get canned completely.

Twitter vibe from the producers is that there are a lot of idiots who haven't put their name or email address in their one-liner submissions. Try to avoid this if possible, as angry producers notoriously don't find things funny.

Here's a very good blog from our own Mr Salisbury about 'The Killer Premise'. Newsjack went reasonably well for him in series 7 so listen to his wise words.

Newsjack Revisited is on Radio 4 tonight at 11pm. Note the 'proper' Radio 4 rather than 4 Extra. It's a 'best of' series 7, I believe, before the show proper starts tomorrow at 11pm on Radio 4 Extra.

Dan

Hey Dan reccomend me a book on a murderous sentence structure?

Quote: swerytd @ February 13 2013, 11:27 AM GMT

Here's a very good blog from our own Mr Salisbury about 'The Killer Premise'. Newsjack went reasonably well for him in series 7 so listen to his wise words.

Dan

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Terrifying!

Hmmmm, ok. I'd have thought that many one liners would work as Corrections, Jackapps and just one liners for Jupp. Would you not be limiting the chances of getting a one liner in if you format it for a specific bit?

Quote: The Man in the Bowler Hat @ February 13 2013, 12:06 PM GMT

Hmmmm, ok. I'd have thought that many one liners would work as Corrections, Jackapps and just one liners for Jupp. Would you not be limiting the chances of getting a one liner in if you format it for a specific bit?

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No, because they simply haven't got time to rewrite stuff. Write it for one and, if they think it works better as the other, they will rewrite it themselves. If you send in a gag without forming it in one guise or the other, it'll get canned, however funny it is.

Also, 'Jupp' left four series ago. Might be a good time to listen to tonight's 'Best Of' just so you hear the new features as it's subtly different now (I would say).

Dan

Quote: The Man in the Bowler Hat @ February 13 2013, 12:06 PM GMT

Hmmmm, ok. I'd have thought that many one liners would work as Corrections, Jackapps and just one liners for Jupp. Would you not be limiting the chances of getting a one liner in if you format it for a specific bit?

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Be brave and trust your own judgement! Bottom line is it's funny. Put it in the format (i.e. one-linber, jack app, correction) that makes you laugh the most (it's ok to laugh at your own jokes in private) and don't think twice about it.

And if something's that good the producers will adapt it to suit their means if necessary. For instance it's not unheard of for them to take a joke from within a sketch and turn that into a one-liner...

I'm not sure if anyone's asked this before [I'm willing to bet they have], but does anyone share their material with anyone? As in, to see their response/if it's funny?

I usually keep my stuff to myself, then email it in, but I've started editting my one-liners much more this time around [to get them down to one page], and I ran them passed a friend and the one he liked most was one I was thinking of scrapping.

Quote: swerytd @ February 13 2013, 11:27 AM GMT

Newsjack Revisited is on Radio 4 tonight at 11pm. Note the 'proper' Radio 4 rather than 4 Extra. It's a 'best of' series 7, I believe, before the show proper starts tomorrow at 11pm on Radio 4 Extra.

Dan

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Minor correction- the show proper is on Radio 4 Xtra at the usual NJ time of 10.30!

Quote: swerytd @ February 13 2013, 12:14 PM GMT

No, because they simply haven't got time to rewrite stuff. Write it for one and, if they think it works better as the other, they will rewrite it themselves. If you send in a gag without forming it in one guise or the other, it'll get canned, however funny it is.

Also, 'Jupp' left four series ago. Might be a good time to listen to tonight's 'Best Of' just so you hear the new features as it's subtly different now (I would say).

Dan

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Dan is spot on that anything you submit should be fully formed, just as you wouldn't send in an idea for a sketch you shouldn't submit a joke that has not been structured to fit a specific part of the show.

I'd add to this that to get a correction broadcast it will have to be pretty zingy, as they only use about 3 per episode, so if you're playing the numbers game submitting your one-liners as jackapps has a better potential hit-rate. On the other side of that coin is that they sometimes struggle to get any good corrections (hence several shows in recent series where none were broadcast at all) so if you can master the art of the correction you'll be on to a winner.

I've shared work with a friend and they've found it funny but that's not to say it fits the tone of Newsjack. However I've started sharing my work more and more because an extra insight into something you've looked at for hours can be useful. Just remember that everyones tastes are different (and if people don't read the papers, they may not get all the topical jokes!).

There are quite a few people about who have shared sketches late on Sunday nights. I've done it with quite a few people over the series and it has helped. Mainly cos on a Sunday night when you've been writing sketches all weekend you need someone to turn around and say 'It's a topical comedy show. What the f**k is this you've sent me? Don't talk to me anymore, you perverted sicko!'

Dan